It should come with a warning: Five Pinterest minutes are equivalent to 45 regular minutes — plan accordingly.
Essentially, it’s an online bulletin board where users “pin” interesting articles, crafts, recipes, home decorating ideas and organizing tips they find on other websites. Maybe it’s not geared solely toward women, but abundance of purse and shoes “pins” leads me to believe they’re the majority of users.
That’s perfectly fine with me. Bring on the cute baby pictures, the romantic wedding dresses, the cheesy hashbrown recipes — it’s like the world’s greatest women’s magazine. But free.
In my self-imposed restricted access to Pinterest (I know myself and I’ve got to set limits, otherwise Jim would never eat or have clean clothes), I’ve learned how to:
• Curl my hair with a sock;
• Tie a scarf in 24 different ways (did you know there was more than one method?);
• Store jewelry with silverware organizers;
• Create thoughtful and cute Christmas gifts;
• Make several varieties of easy Christmas cookies; and
• Economize on my grocery bill.
It’s not a social networking site in the model of Facebook or Twitter, but rather it’s a social catalog service. It demonstrates a shift in the use of the Internet from searching (like on Google or Amazon) to discovery, according to an article on techcrunch.com.
You can still enter search terms, like “easy Christmas cookie recipe,” but instead of getting results from the entire Internet, you get suggestions from other Pinterest users.
What that reminds me of is asking co-workers or family for recipes or household tips — something I regularly do — but on a much larger scale.
I have a feeling a lot of my sentences in the future will start with “I was on Pinterest and I found ...”
There’s definitely an abundance of information, both informative and entertaining, on Pinterest. But in addition to the time-sucking warning, I think maybe it should come with another one.
It’s this: You’re only seeing what they want you to see.
OK, that sounds a little “1984” but “they” refers to pinners, bloggers, website content writers ... frankly, people like me.
I’d rather put my best foot forward, whether it’s in person or online and so I tend to share the pretty moments of my life.
It’s the same on Pinterest. You’re not going to find pictures of burned Christmas cookies or messy houses because, well, we’re all rather familiar with it already.
The temptation is to believe that the creators of clever crafts and givers of generous gifts magically have it all figured out.
They don’t. Nobody does.
That’s what you have to keep in the back of your mind while scrolling through photos of beautifully decorated homes.
It probably took quite a bit of mess and chaos to get that way, and if it’s anything like my house, it won’t stay in its picture-perfect state for long.
On the Lighter Side
Published December 14, 2011
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